


They Loved Us

by PrussianInAmerica



Series: An Empire Built on the Backs of the People it Tore Down [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character of Unknown Gender, Hux Redemption, Kylo Ren Redemption, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 21:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6395212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrussianInAmerica/pseuds/PrussianInAmerica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Redemption isn't that easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They Loved Us

**Author's Note:**

> Oops. I'm just going to stop promising anything about _Zingiberaceous_. One day the next two chapters will be up. Until then, have this.
> 
> This is set eleven years after _My Command, My Children_ and a year after Ren and Hux leave the First Order to find Ren's family and join the Resistance. That story will also be posted one day.
> 
> Ren is sixteen-ish, Hux is somewhere around twenty.

“Did we do the right thing?”

Hux glanced up from the plans General Solo had given him. Ben was sitting on the couch, staring at a little figurine in his hands – the Darth Vader statuette Lord Tamak’ine had gifted him with when he was still quite young. The paint was peeling off in places, and the long plastic of the lightsaber was a bit bent, but he hadn’t been able to just leave it behind when they were making their escape.

“What do you mean?”

Ben reached up and tried to carefully straighten the weapon again. He watched the plastic slowly bend back to the shape it had grow accustom to.

“Should we have tried to bring Tama with us?”

The older boy huffed. “You’re really still calling them that? _Now_?”

“… They raised us, Hux.”

“They killed thousands! _No_ amount of bed time stories, kissed boo-boos, or Vader merchandise bought could make up for that!”

“We would have done the same thing, Hux. If I hadn’t found out about my family, hadn’t realized just how horrible the Order was, we would have killed just as many people. Maybe more. What about Starkiller?”

“ _Starkiller would have killed billions!_ ”

The plans were scattered, his chair was across the room, the table was a foot from where it had been, and he was seething. Ren – no, Ben, looked almost scared. A paper fluttered to the ground in his peripheral.

Hux sighed and sat on the ground, scrubbed a gloved hand over his eyes. He sat quietly for a minute, coming down.

“That’s why we left, Ben. We left so we _wouldn’t_ kill anyone. Not anyone innocent. Lord Tamak’ine chose that life, we chose this one.”

“I know.” Ben’s voice was much closer now, right in front of him, and Hux opened his eyes when the younger boy’s hand touched his. “I just meant… Vader was just Anakin Skywalker at the end, maybe… Lord Tamak’ine could have become whoever they were again. Could have come with us. Shouldn’t we have at least tried?”

Hux couldn’t stop the tired laugh that bubbled up. “Of course this comes back to your Vader obsession.”

“Anakin.”

“Yeah, Anakin.”

"Do you understand?”

Hux looked at him, at the dark tresses curling softly over his shoulders, at the eyes that had always shown just what he was thinking.

“I understand.” He reached out and pulled the boy into a one armed hug, holding the hand that was touching his. Ben rested his cheek on Hux’s shoulder, pressing the tip of his nose to the older boy’s neck. “We couldn’t have done anything, Ben. It was hard enough getting through the few troopers that tried to stop us. Can you imagine trying to get past Tamak’ine if you told them our plans and they weren’t sympathetic? We would have been slaughtered.”

“Tama _loved_ us, though.”

“I don’t think that would have mattered.”

They were quiet for a long time after that, unmoving.


End file.
